A printer may include a print carriage provided with one or more print cartridges, a media input tray configured to maintain a stack of printable media sheets, and a media transport system configured to remove a single sheet of the printable media sheets and direct it into a print zone for printing by the print cartridge(s). Exemplary media transport systems include a pick roller that is biased into contact with a top sheet of the printable media. Rotation of the pick roller causes the pick roller to frictionally pick the top sheet from the stack of media sheets and deliver it into the print zone.
However, the pick roller is subject to contamination by debris, for example during use in dusty/dirty environments. Contaminated pick rollers have the potential to cause undesirable picking failures characterized by the pick roller not picking the topmost sheet or picking more than one sheet.
For these and other reasons, a need exists for the present invention.